Embedding a Successful Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Culture – Insights From The Outdoor Connection 2024
How do you embed a successful Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) culture in your community group or organisation? At The Outdoor Connection 2024, EDI changemaker and mountain bike coach Aneela McKenna ran a session on ‘Embedding A Successful Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Culture’. The session had an intersectionality lens on how to create and align systems, processes and values that will drive an inclusive culture for all.
This article is written by Hannah Frost who is part of the team behind @eds.climbers on Instagram. Hannah was in the room for this session, and she has highlighted some of the key points of the discussion.
Through a series of articles, we’re sharing key takeaways from some of the sessions at The Outdoor Connection 2024. You can find the full list of articles here.
The Outdoor Connection 2024 was an All The Elements x YHA Outdoor Citizens partnership event, supported by YHA England and Wales, Natural England and Sport England. brings together community groups, organisations, system partners and brands, working to support access to nature and the outdoors to share experiences, learn from each other and develop new skills. Find out more about The Outdoor Connection 2025 here.
Meet the Expert:
Aneela McKenna (she/her) is an award-winning Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) change-maker. With a lifetime career in this field, she is founder of the Mòr Diversity Consultancy. She also works closely with outdoor sector organisations and provides educational training and workshops on EDI. Aneela's work as a mountain bike coach, guide, tutor, and mentor also keeps her connected to the community, broadening participation and fostering diversity in leadership.
What is Equality, Diversity and Inclusion?
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) refers to a framework made to promote fair treatment and participation for all people. It is important for those who have been traditionally underrepresented in, or excluded from, a space. It can be good to break EDI into its separate elements, as Equality, Diversity and Inclusion all mean different things.
Equality refers to everyone in society having equal rights and equal access to public goods and services. However, Aneela highlighted that it is better to think about ‘equity’ rather than ‘equality’ here. Equity is acknowledging that if society were a running race, not everyone is at the start line and creating policies and processes can provide a level playing field. The example given here was of three people watching a ball game behind a fence. One adult, one child, and one wheelchair user. Each was given a box to stand on, representing the misconceived idea that equality is treating everyone the same. The second image was demonstrating equity, where the child was given the adult’s box as well as his own so he could see and the wheelchair user was given a ramp to get up to the box to enable them to see. Yet this is only a temporary fix.
Aneela took this one step further and showed a third picture where there was no fence and therefore all three people had an equal chance to see. She highlighted that when systemic inequalities are addressed, in this case the structural factors, this leads to true equality.
Aneela then went on to describe Diversity, Inclusion and also Belonging, which isn’t in the acronym but is important to think about separately. She described these using the example of a party:
“Diversity is about everyone coming to the party. Inclusion is about everyone being invited to dance. Belonging is feeling free to express yourself on the dancefloor.”
The originator of this quote is Vernā Myers. ‘Belonging’ has been added in to bring the power back to the individual who shouldn’t be bound by the norms that society expects us all to fit into.
This quote clearly shows that inviting people into a space (such as your event or group) is not enough. You need to redesign what you do and how you do it – to truly belong, you need to give up your power and bring different voices into the mix to enable everyone to express themselves freely on the dancefloor.
How do we create a sense of belonging through an intersectional lens?
Creating belonging through an intersectional lens involves first understanding what intersectionality is. Intersectionality was coined by civil rights activist and scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989 who was discussing the intersections of race and gender, and has evolved to describe how individuals can have a range of different characteristics such as race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation and disability that create overlapping systems of discrimination and disadvantage. The experiences of those with different characteristics can crossover, or intersect, and can impact people from minority and marginalised groups in different ways.
To start thinking about these different identities in the session led by Aneela, the wheel of power was used to demonstrate how our different characteristics can impact our level of power and privilege. Linked to that is our ability to find a sense of belonging within different spaces. For someone with less power it is a lot harder to access the outdoors – there are more obstacles in the way for them to overcome.
It’s important when considering intersectionality to remember that not all of a person's characteristics may be visible (for example, someone could be black and neurodiverse). Therefore, when creating belonging it is important to be proactive, think about the obstacles that might be faced by different groups of people and create an environment that is welcoming and safe for as many people as possible, building inclusive design into the space.
To create belonging in an environment, inclusion needs to be repeatedly practised so that people with different characteristics are invited to the space, come to the space and over time actually feel like they belong. Aneela used a model from exclusion to belonging (the example she used comes from the education setting), which demonstrates that just inviting people doesn’t create a sense of belonging if you aren’t doing anything to help people integrate and eventually over time feel able to belong and fully express themselves.
What can we do to be more inclusive?
If you want to be more inclusive in your community or organisation, you need to make sure that you have inclusion embedded in all aspects of your work – from the team, to the advertising, and of course the activities too. There are a few places that you can specifically aim for inclusive practice:
Increase representation
It can be helpful to think about who isn’t represented within your work and why they aren’t represented. Sometimes this is to do with a feeling of not ‘belonging’. This can be due to easily identifiable factors – does your social media representation tell stories of a specific type of person that the excluded groups do not identify with? Such lack of representation can mean they don’t feel welcome to join.
Sometimes it can be more complicated, such as the language used in your advertising or by community members. It’s important at all stages to communicate who is welcome and what you can provide for them, and use language that is recommended by the communities you want to welcome (see the section further down on training for more).
Identify additional barriers
Another possibility may be that some people aren’t represented because they don’t know about your work. This can be especially true for people who aren’t as present on social media or technology savvy. These factors can be addressed by using multiple methods of advertising, such as using local notice boards alongside email and social media.
It can also be that different groups face different barriers to accessing activities or the outdoors than you have previously come across or catered for. Someone may be interested in joining your group, but they don’t, for example, have transport to your meet up points or the kit to take part in your activity.
The best way to find out why a certain group is not joining your activities is to do your research. The barriers to access are well known and easily found and discussed in research and online. For more information on the research, the barriers and what people are doing about it, check out the ATE online resource library for podcasts, books, written articles, films and guides.
Provide training to your team
Whether you rely on volunteers or employees to do your work, training is important. Provide a list of things that need to be covered in the introduction to an activity that includes more than just health and safety considerations. For example there are some actions that can help LGBTQ+ participants feel welcome, such as sharing and respecting other people's pronouns and sharing if the venue has gender neutral toilets.
Collaborate with other community groups
Explore collaborating with other groups that have strong relationships with broader communities. Find out if they are interested in what you are offering and if there are any barriers you can overcome together. This can introduce a wider diversity of people to your group and activity. It is important to do this in a way that makes each group feel safe and welcome, avoiding tokenising people. Communicate with each other about your needs and expectations. Ask yourself what value, experience or skills you are bringing to the collaboration.
And finally…
…when creating inclusion in our communities and organisations, it’s important to remember your group and work will never suit everyone. In fact, there might be times when the needs of one community are in conflict with the needs of another. Rather than targeting different communities for inclusion, often the most useful thing you can do is to provide as much information as you can about your work, and actively welcome new people. That way, people can decide if your space is right for them.
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This article is part of our Insights series from The Outdoor Connection 2024. You can find out more about the event and find a full list of articles from the sessions on The Outdoor Connection page.
If you’re not already a part of the All The Elements community, we’d love to hear from you. We support individuals working on diversity, access and representation in the UK outdoors by providing peer-to-peer support, resources and capacity-building. We believe in the strength of community, and if you’d like to find out more about how we can support you, collaborate with us, or tell us about something you’re working on, please get in touch.
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Things you can do next:
Check out the Guides in our Resources section for specific advice on how to create events, content and spaces that are accessible and inclusive across intersections.
Join us at an ATE (Online) Social to connect with like minded individuals working to create change in diversity in the UK outdoors.
Learn more about collaborating with other groups and organisations in Hannah’s article exploring the benefits and challenges of cross sector collaboration.
